Paris Olympics, table tennis: India stun Romania, reach quarter-finals
India stunned Romania 3-2 in the 2024 Paris Olympics table tennis women's team event on August 5. Sreeja Akula and Archana Kamath won the first match against Adina Diaconu and Elizabeta Samara, while Manika Batra defeated Bernadette Szocs in the second match. Manika won her second successive singles clash as India qualified for the quarter-finals. Here are further details.
India beat Romania 3-2 after claiming early lead
Sreeja and Archana beat Adina and Samara 11-9, 12-11 to give India an early lead. Manika then claimed a 11-5, 11-7 win against Szocs in women's singles clash. However, Samara pulled one back by defeating Sreeja 8-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 11-8. Romania maintained their momentum as Szocs beat Archana 11-5, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9. Manika returned to beat Adina 11-5, 11-9, 11-9.
India's Olympics debut in team events
This is the first instance of India participating in the team table tennis events (men and women) at the Olympics. Notably, the men's and women's team events were introduced at the Olympic Games in 2008 (Beijing).
What happened in individual matches?
Earlier at the Paris Games, Sreeja and Manika scripted history in the women's singles table tennis event. The former became the second-ever Indian paddler to reach the Olympic singles R16 with a 4-2 victory over Singapore's Zheng Jian. Sreeja joined India's Manika Batra, who earlier reached the Round of 16. However, she lost to Japan's Miu Hirano.
